Editorial: Guadalupe basilica would be a boon for the suburbs

Every year in December, a touching pilgrimage happens in the suburbs. Last week, 140,000 Catholics, mostly Mexican-Americans, came by car and by foot to the Our Lady of Guadalupe shrine in Des Plaines for the annual 36-hour celebration of her feast day.

Visitors drive from all over the Chicago area and beyond, parking in remote lots and walking or shuttling to the Maryville campus where the shrine is located. Other groups make the trip on foot, walking miles from their home parishes. Police close down Central Road to protect the numbers of people arriving on foot.

"We are all on a pilgrimage," said Chicago's archbishop, Blase Cupich, who led the 12:30 a.m. Mass entirely in Spanish, for more than 100,000 worshippers.

For such a huge event, many non-Hispanics know nothing about it. That will change, we expect, if the shrine's leaders can pull off a miraculous feat of their own, raising $60 million to enlarge the shrine into a basilica to Our Lady of Guadalupe - second in size only to the basilica outside Mexico City.

For Hispanics in the suburbs, notably Mexican Americans, Guadalupe is the patroness of the Americas. Catholic legend says in December 1531 the Virgin Mary appeared to an Aztec peasant outside what is now Mexico City and worked miracles that proved to the peasant, and the skeptical local bishop, that in fact it was she.

In the hundreds of years since, Guadalupe has been a symbol of hope and of grace to Hispanic Catholics. And since 1988, when Maryville Academy first accepted a traveling statue of our Lady of Guadalupe and gave it a permanent home, the December pilgrimages here have been growing.

Those who happened to watch the Latino network Univision on Thursday night through Friday morning could see the excitement build, as the network broadcast live from Des Plaines and from Mexico City, back and forth, showing the surging but respectful crowds praying, dancing and celebrating.

The Rev. Marco Mercado, rector of the shrine, is excited about the future. With only $2 million in hand, he knows the basilica is still a dream, but Mercado will take the fundraising national in 2015.

We believe it is a worthwhile goal. And what an amazing attraction for the suburbs.

Yes, there must be public meetings, with long, detailed discussions over planning and traffic. The impact of the basilica on neighboring residents and businesses and the city of Des Plaines must be carefully studied and accommodations made.

The basilica in Mexico City has given its blessing to the Des Plaines shrine. One hundred and forty thousand people agree. At this early stage in the planning - only about a year - it sounds like a wonderful opportunity for the suburbs.